


Suddenly I See You

by ciuucalata



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, M/M, Slow Burn, Time Skips, at least the first few chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-16 23:29:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15448251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ciuucalata/pseuds/ciuucalata
Summary: Ever since that day when he was five, Keith has been wondering what it’d be like to have both eyes of the same color. And years later, when he found out that that could be possible, but only after he met his soulmate, he thought about all the different possibilities of their meeting.Would it happen while he was still young, or when he was older, with lost hope of ever meeting his soulmate? Would it happen in winter, during a snowy day where the snowflakes fall down like glitter, or maybe during summer, when he was at the beach and the color of the ocean would resemble his soulmate’s eyes? Maybe they’d just randomly bump into each other at a coffee shop and stay there talking for hours. Or maybe they’d meet through a mutual friend. He wonders if it would hurt when the eye color changes, or if it’ll happen in a blink.There are so many possibilities. Keith daydreamed about almost all of them. And in a way, he’s right about all of them.





	Suddenly I See You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BleuSarcelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BleuSarcelle/gifts).



> HAPPY late BIRTHDAY TO REA!!! I'm sorry it took me so long to post it and also sorry for lying about this not being your birthday gift. We gotta do what we gotta do and hey! Now this fic is finally yours  
> I hope you enjoy it!!  
> Also, before you begin reading, I just wanted to say that I started writing this fic before Krolia was properly introduced in the show which is why her character might be a little off

Keith is only five when he realizes that his eyes aren’t both the same color.

He stops brushing his teeth then, narrowing his eyes in confusion as he leans over the sink to look better and closer at his reflection in the bathroom’s mirror. Of course, he’s too short to get as close as he wants, but he’s trying even if he doesn’t really succeed.

It does catch his mom’s attention, though, and she blinks surprised at him.

He looks at her reflection and when their eyes meet, she smiles at him through a mouth full of toothpaste. Both her eyes are black and sparkling with amusement. Keith then turns to his dad, who’s also brushing his teeth on the other side of Keith and meets his eyes.They’re both the same color as one of Keith’s eyes: a deep blue that, with the right light trick, turns into purple almost.

Keith looks a few more times from his dad’s eyes to his mom’s and frowns.

He takes out his toothbrush and says, mouth full of toothpaste, “Your eyes are strange.”

His parents share a look above his head and both huff through their nose as if they want to laugh but can’t. His mom is the one that finishes brushing her teeth and, after washing her mouth, she puts a hands on his head to brush his bangs away from his face.

“Why are our eyes strange, honey?”

Keith spits the toothpaste out but forgets to clean his mouth with water afterwards. He looks up at his mom instead, confused frown still in its place.

“That’s because they aren’t like mine. They’re- both of your eyes are black!” he points out as if she doesn’t already know that. His mom laughs softly, the same way she always does when Keith says something that sounds like an almost truth. She shakes her head and passes her fingers again through his hair.

“They’re not different, buddy,” his dad says, instead, and Keith turns to face the mirror again. He meets his dad’s eyes and it’s like once he noticed the difference, that’s all he can think about.

One of Keith’s eyes is the same color as his dad’s eyes and the other one is such a clear blue, it reminds Keith of pools. It’s not black like his mom’s. It’s blue. If Keith is being honest, this opposing ideas in his eyes scares him a little. He feels as if it’s about something bigger than anything he knows. Almost as if it holds powers and secrets that Keith isn’t able to understand yet.

“They’re just special,” his dad finishes.

Keith frowns at him and turns to look at his reflection in the mirror once again.

All he can see is blue and purple.

* * *

 Keith’s eyes, of course, aren’t that special, he finds out later on.

They don’t make him different from all his other friends so, in his opinion, they aren’t special. He realizes, in just a few days after the startling realization he had while brushing his teeth, that he’s not the only one that has eyes of different colors.

Sure, he met a few kids that have both eyes the same color, but he soon learns that that is normal too.

He also learns about soulmates. About that one person that he’ll meet in his life that will give a sense to everything- and also the color of their eyes. About how having a soulmate means that you won’t have to ever feel alone. About how you’ll spend your whole life by their side. He learns about love and all the different shades that it comes in. Shades of love that are each important, no matter if the person you love is your soulmate or not.

For these reasons, he understands that his eyes are special too. Because they symbolize the bond he has with someone he hasn’t met yet- but that he will meet. And he will love that person as if they are a part of him and the other person will love him like he’s a part of them too.

“It’s not _as if_ , my love,” his dad tells his mom when they finally talk about this a few years after the ‘brushing teeth realization’, as his parents so kindly remind Keith of it everytime. Keith’s dad puts a hand on his head to ruffle his hair and turns to smile at him. “They are a part of you, son. And you are a part of them, too. When you’ll meet them, you’ll feel like… like you’re in focus.”

“Focus?” Keith asks, his eyebrows furrowing together. His dad pulls the same face quickly, like he is just as confused as Keith.

“Well, being in focus means… it means that…” his dad trails off, looking away from Keith around the living room, as if it hid away the words he needed for his explanation.

“Keith, sweetheart,” his mom calls him and when he turns to look at her, the first thing his eyes settle on is her enormous belly. It looks as if she’s hiding a ball under her black sweater. Keith knows that isn’t actually true because he’s seen her belly but that thought never really disappeared. “You don’t have to understand everything now. You’ll have time to figure it out.”

Keith’s dad nods, clearly relieved that he doesn’t have to give any more explanations. His mom shakes her head amused, but it has a fond edge. She walks towards her boys with a hand on her belly.

“And it’s not like everyone has the same soulmate experience. You’ll get your own, so be patient.” She sits down between Keith and his dad with a groan after which she sighs contently, putting both hands on her belly. “Now, who’s ready to watch that documentary about cryptids?”

Keith’s dad groans while Keith’s face lights up and he bounces in his spot on the couch. His mom laughs and, as she turns on the TV to look for the right channel, she winks at her husband. In response, he rolls his eyes and puts a hand around her shoulders in a way that allows him to also touch Keith’s head if he wanted to do that.

They’re just twenty minutes into the documentary and Keith is focused on the words of the people interviewed, yet he still hears when his mom gasps and lets out a soft, “Oh!”

He turns to look at her, confused and a little bit worried until he sees her smiling down at her belly.

“Everything alright, sweetheart?” his dad asks, putting a hand over one of hers, which is resting on the big bump.

“She’s kicking,” she whispers, eyes glistening with excitement and love. It immediately infects his dad because he’s smiling warmly at their hands. “Keith,” his mom says and both his parents turn to him. “Do you want to feel it, sweetie?”

Keith looks unsure from them to the belly and, hesitating for a second or two, he nods slowly. His mom takes one of his hands after tucking up a part of her sweater and she puts it on her warm skin.

At first, nothing happens. He’s just touching the stretched skin that feels nothing like the soft tummy he used to nap on just months ago. But then - then he feels a bump against his hands and it makes him flinch a little from the surprise. His mom’s hands on his doesn’t let him move away, though. She laughs quietly at his reaction. Keith pays no attention to her. He feels the small bump again and this time, when it comes, he’s ready for it.

His eyes widen as he looks only at the part of his mom’s belly that his hand touches. He opens his mouth but he can’t seem to say anything. He’s too mesmerized by what’s happening.

That is his little sister.

“I want to name her Riley,” his mom whispers and a soft silence falls in the room. “Just like your mom.”

And as Keith looks up from his mom’s belly to his dad, he sees the tears fill up his purple eyes.

* * *

 Keith is nine when he realizes something about his soulmate and he’s ten when he tells his parents about it.

He got into a fight at school that day and he’s embarrassed to face his parents because he knows they’ll be disappointed in him. Yet, he can’t bring himself to regret hitting Dean. He deserved it and Keith would do it again in a heartbeat.

“Keith, sweetheart,” his mom implores, getting down on her knees in front of the couch on which Keith was sitting. She takes both his hands in  hers, bringing them close together as if they were something to cherish. The warmth of her hands that envelop his bruised knuckles make a fresh wave of ashamed tears fill his eyes. “Please talk to us.”

“What made you hit that boy, buddy?” his dad asks, voice just a notch harsher than normal. Keith can see his dad’s legs as he stands behind mom, holding Riley in his arms. He uses them as a focus point because, by doing so, it means that he doesn’t have to look at his mom’s face when he tells them the reason.

“He was being mean,” he whispers. And just those few words hurt his throat that’s desperately swallowing down tears. “He- he said-” a hiccup interrupts him and it startles him enough to make him give up on holding back from crying. He whimpers and takes his hands out of his mom’s to hide his face.

There’s silence from his parents for just a second and then his mom wraps her arms around him, tugging him to her chest. “Keith, baby. Shhh, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

He doesn’t feel okay, though. He still feels like there is a heavy weight on his chest and it’s hard to breathe through the countless waves of tears that overflow in his eyes. He’s still scared and ashamed and angry. All these contradicting feelings are overwhelming him and, even as his mom is trying to reassure him, he can’t get a word out.

His mom then takes him in her arms before she stands up. She’s trying to comfort him but no matter how warm and accepting his mom feels now, it can’t take away the fear of her hating him for the way he feels. He’s afraid that once she finds out that he likes boys instead of girls, she’ll look at him with the same disgust and hatred Dean’s eyes showed while he was talking about romantic soulmates who are.

“He-he was saying bad things,” Keith tries again. Once he started talking, he couldn’t stop. He told his parents how Dean’s browns eyes were burning with a dark fire and how he spit every word he said like they didn’t deserve to be on his lips. How he didn’t use bad words because they were still at school, but he didn’t need to use them anyway. How the way he spoke all the other words that got out of his mouth stabbed Keith hard in the chest.

“I understand how that would make you feel, Keith. But punching someone is still a bad thing.” His dad still sounded angry, maybe more than before, and Keith whimpers again, hiding himself more in his mom’s shoulder.

“ _Diaki_!” his mom whispers; a magic word that always silences the whole house. “Keith, why did you punch Dean?” she asks once again but her words are somehow different. As if she knows- knew all along and was just waiting for Keith to realize it too.

“My soulmate is a boy.”

It feels as if time freezes right then. Keith wishes that were the case because it would make his life so much more easier. But of course, the universe isn’t on Keith’s side and it decides to let the time flow as it wants.

It takes only a breath for Keith to realize what he said out loud.

It takes only a breath for his mom’s arms to squeeze her tighter to her chest.

It only takes a breath for his dad to step closer and put a trembling hand on his shoulder.

And it only takes a breath for Riley to start crying her eyes out.

That startles everyone. Keith quickly wipes away his tears while his dad tries to make Riley stop her own. He looks panicked, as if it’s the first time he sees a baby crying. His mom turns to face Riley properly, still holding Keith in her arms.

“Shhh, baby,” they both say at the same time and for some reason, even in this weird moment, that makes him smile. “Everything’s fine.”

“What is she saying?” his mom asks.

All three of them remain silent and Keith wonders if his parents are also holding their breath just to understand the mess of syllabes his sister is trying to put together. The crying and sobs aren’t helping, but somehow, his dad is able to translate her gibberish.

“Keith?” he asks, not sure if he heard right. “Sunshine, Keith is right here.” He takes her away from his chest where she’s been crying, and turns her to face Keith. “See, he is okay. He isn’t crying,” he says softly and slowly.

“No one is scolding him,” his mom adds. “No one hates him.” It feels as if those words are meant to be more for Keith than for Riley. “He’s still your big brother, no matter what.”

Keith feels as a new lump forms in his throat, but the feelings pushing behind it are warmer and softer. He isn’t crying, but he wouldn’t mind doing that now.

At their mom’s words, Riley stops crying and looks at her. Keith can barely understand sometimes when his sister talks, let alone what he’s thinking. In that moment, though, it feels as if she’s saying, _“Well, duh, who else’s big brother can he be?”_ Then Riley turns to face Keith.

“Keef,” Riley calls him even if she’s able to pronounce his name correctly by now. She’s just not bothering. Keith looks at her back, now knowing what to say. Riley needs no words, though, she just smiles brightly at him, flushed cheeks still wet from crying.

He smiles at her and her blue eyes shine brighter as an excited sound, almost like a laugh, comes from her.

* * *

 

Ever since that day when he was five, Keith has been wondering what it’d be like to have both eyes of the same color. And years later, when he found out that that could be possible, but only after he met his soulmate, he thought about all the different possibilities of their meeting.

Would it happen while he was still young, or when he was older, with lost hope of ever meeting his soulmate? Would it happen in winter, during a snowy day where the snowflakes fall down like glitter, or maybe during summer, when he was at the beach and the color of the ocean would resemble his soulmate’s eyes? Maybe they’d just randomly bump into each other at a coffee shop and stay there talking for hours. Or maybe they’d meet through a mutual friend. He wonders if it would hurt when the eye color changes, or if it’ll happen in a blink.

There are so many possibilities. Keith daydreamed about almost all of them. And in a way, he’s right about all of them.

The summer before his freshman year in high school his parents decide that they need a break from the city. And what better break than a week to the beach.

Well, in Keith opinion, anything.

It’s not that he hates the beach. He actually likes it in the mornings when it’s silent and there are a few people. But as the days keeps growing, so does the crowd and the heat and the sweat.

Sure, he could spend all his time in the water but it’s not as fun when you don’t know how to swim.

“You don’t even want to learn how to swim, Grumpy,” Riley calls out accusingly to him, swimming away.

“I hope a fish eats you, Peaches!” Keith calls out and it makes his dad look at him. He could almost hear him say, _“Be nice to your sister.”_ He is nice, okay? It’s not his fault that Riley doesn’t have to follow the same rules as him.

A ball lands  out of nowhere in front of him and splashes him on the face with freezing water.

“Riley!” he cries without even making sure it was her that threw the ball. Her laughter is enough of an answer, though. “Come back here, you little peach.”

“Stop calling me that!” she replies instead, swimming even farther away towards their mom. “I hate peaches!”

“Exactly!” He wants to flip her off, the way he does with his friends somehow, but he knows that’ll get him grounded for eternity. Instead, he sticks his tongue out at her.

“I miss the days when you used to be crazy about each other,” his father sighs. “Now, you two are just crazy!” And with that he swims away from Keith, leaving him alone with the ball.

“It’s not my fault she grew up to hate me,” Keith says to no one as he takes the ball before it could drift away from him. He looks down at the ball, at its  bright colors displayed in a rainbow pattern, and he thinks about his soulmate.

He’s been thinking a lot about his soulmate lately. About what he’ll look like, what he’ll sound like, about his smile and hair and nose and lips and eyes. Especially the eyes. They’re the only thing he knows about his soulmate and the thing that’ll let them recognize eachother.

One clear blue eye. One dark blue eye. Same color, just different shades. He wonders if this coincidence has any meaning behind it.

When he told this to his mom, she laughed and combed her fingers through his hair. _“I believe there is no such thing as coincidence, pumpkin. Everything in this world has its own meaning and fate. It just takes a while to understand what it really is.”_

_“What is mine, mom?”_

_“To be loved, sweetheart.”_

Keith blushes at the memory, shaking his head at his mom’s cheesiness, but it still makes him smile. His parents always showed and told them how loved they are. And Keith might be embarrassed from time to time to show that he loves them too, but he’ll never be ashamed of loving them as much as he does.

“Mooom! Daad! Teach me how to swim!” he calls out, ignoring how everyone enjoying the water turns to look at him.

“I guess the ugly duckling has finally grown up,” Riley says when he finally reaches him.

“You know, for an eight years old, you have a really smart mouth,” he says And like every big brother that respects himself, he splashes her with water. She yelps, trying to get away from him but the water is a tricky place when it comes to doing earthly things, like running backwards.

Riley trips on something and goes under the water, surfacing before anyone could get worried.

“Ooh, you’re so dead, _peaches_.

“Hey, that’s my thing!” Keith accuses and has no time to close his mouth before Riley splashes him.

They spend the rest of the afternoon like this. The two of them fighting about too many things, and their parents acting as if they didn’t know them. Sometimes, even loving parents can pretend not to love you from embarrassment.

When they finally decide it’s time to go home, Keith feels like he’s already sleeping on his feet. All his moves feel as if he is made of jelly and his eyes don’t want to stay all the way open. At least he’s not the only one yawning.

Riley was already sleeping in their dad’s arms, her ponytails dangling with every step. For some reason, it makes Keith want to laugh. In that moment, it’s the funniest thing ever.

He’s so focused on her hair that he loses all control of his limbs, letting the ball fall from under his arm.

“You better catch it, son,” his dad says chuckling. “I don’t wanna buy another one for your sister.”

“Whyy?” he whines, but he still goes after it.

The balls keeps rolling down, towards the water and Keith swears that if it touches the waves, he’s letting it to fate’s will. Unfortunately, someone stops it before it can get anywhere close to the water.

Keith sighs as he jogs to the boy that picked it up. “Thank you! You save-!”

He has no chance of finishing his sentence before the boy looks up at him and their eyes meet. One clear blue eye. One dark blue eye. Same color, just different shades.

He is sure time must have frozen. There is no wind blowing, no waves crashing, no happy children screaming. Not even his own heartbeat could be heard.

He can’t hear or feel anything. All his attentions is focused on those heterochromatic eyes that look back at him. Wide and sparkling and so, so beautiful. Keith is sure he has never seen a thing or person more beautiful than his own soulmate.

They blink and time continues flowing again.

All it took was one blink to break the magic. His soulmate’s eyes are no longer mismatched now. They are the same dark blue color and it instantly becomes Keith’s favorite color.

All it took was one blink for the boy to drop the ball, to look at Keith and to run away. Everything happens so quickly that Keith can’t understand what just happened. By now, the ball is getting taken away by the clear blue water but he doesn’t care. He walks towards it and takes it in his hands. He looks at it’s rainbow colors and that’s when realization strikes him.

All it took was one blink for Keith to lose his soulmate forever.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading!! comments and kudos are always appreciated
> 
> you can also find me on tumblr @[ciuucalata](https://ciuucalata.tumblr.com/)  
> and my writing blog @[ciuucalatawrites](https://ciuucalatawrites.tumblr.com/)
> 
> and now a little message for Rea: First of all, I just want to say what everyone already knows and that is that you are an amazing and bright person. And sure, like everyone you have your moments when you aren't but no matter what comes your way, you somehow always get out of if being stronger and having learnt an important lesson from it. You're funny and loyal and you care about your friends so much sometimes I wonder where you keep all that love hidden. Talking to you and, consequently becoming friends, is still something I can't believe. And it's been over a year now since we've known eachother. You have this power to make every conversation lighter and funnier, even if it's supposed to be a serious situation. You stand for what you believe in and you take no shit from no one. I like that a lot about you!  
> And you know what other think I like- no, wait I love? Your writing! I've already lost count of how many fics of yours I read but they are a lot. And I mean, A LOT! And with every fic you wrote, every drablle, every ficlet, I found comfort in your words, which always welcomed me with open arms like an old friend. In this year and a half I've seen you growing so much - both as a writer and a person - and it's been an amazing journey. Thank you for letting me be a part of this!  
> And I also thank you for all the encouragements, for listening to my troubles, for helping me overcome them and for pushing me to grow along with you!!  
> Wow, this got long lmao. Anyway, I love you lots, babe, and I hope this year will be kinder and that it will have more accomplishments than the last!!


End file.
